New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio blasted his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, for the execution and defense of the controversial stop-and-frisk policy.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, de Blasio ripped into comments made by Bloomberg in 2015 about the stop-and-frisk policy. In those comments, Bloomberg also said that minority neighbors are “where all the crime is.”
When asked if he thought those were racist remarks, de Blasio said, “Oh, sure. Sean, look, this is — thank you for playing that for your millions of viewers, because now more people are going to see who Mike Bloomberg really is. That policy divided police and community.”
“He’s totally out of touch with the people of his own city when he says that,” de Blasio added.
“It’s derogatory. It’s unfair. It’s not truthful. But on top of that, what happened? It made it harder for police to communicate, to be on the same page. It created tons of pain for parents, grandparents, trying to bring up their kids the right way.”
Watch the interview below:
Additionally, de Blasio slammed Bloomberg for continuing the stop-and-frisk policy despite elected officials and community leaders raising concerns about the effectiveness of the policy.
“He disdained them. .. He dismissed them,” he said.
When it comes to his 2015 comments, Bloomberg has said they do not align with how he governed as mayor, “It’s just not the way that I think and it … doesn’t reflect what I do every day. I led the most populous, largest city in the United States and got re-elected three times. The public seemed to like what I do.”
During the Democratic debate in South Carolina on Tuesday, Bloomberg said the stop-and-frisk policy got “out of control” and claimed that he tried to reign in the policy. However, it wasn’t until a 2013 court order which found the policy to be unconstitutional that it was eventually rolled back, as NBC News notes.